Brussels (Belgium) : Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has said that captured Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was planning more attacks during his hideout in Brussels.
Abdeslam, Europe’s most wanted man, was arrested on Friday during a police raid as he returned to his family home in Molenbeek after being undetected since the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people and left several injured.
“We have found a lot of weapons, heavy weapons, in the first investigations and we have found a new network around him in Brussels,” the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying.
Reynders said that the French-Belgian investigation discovered that more than 30 people were involved in the Paris attacks.
Meanwhile, Abdeslam’s attorney Sven Mary said that he was cooperating as Belgian authorities questioned him, reports the Washington Post.
Abdeslam had yesterday told the police that he was supposed to blow himself up at the Stade de France but backed out at the last minute.
With the grilling session on, Abdeslam’s information will provide intelligence to analyse whether the link of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is rooted in Europe.
Abdeslam’s arrest sent a wave of respite through Brussels as France will finally be able to hold to account one man allegedly involved in the Paris attacks.
French public prosecutor, François Molins, had confirmed that Abdeslam had been a key member of the group who carried out a series of bombings and shootings in Paris on November 13 last year but stressed that the alleged confession should be treated with care and needed to be double checked.
He has been charged with participation in terrorist murder and in the activities of a terrorist organisation.(ANI)